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Method of collecting information for a geographic database for use with a navigation system

The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/583,454 filed Oct. 19, 2006, which was a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,626 filed Jun. 30, 2004, which was related to the co-pending applications: application Ser. No. 10/881,312 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, application Ser. No. 10/881,660 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, application Ser. No. 10/880,660 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, application Ser. No. 10/880,815 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, and application Ser. No. 10/880,816 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.

The present invention relates to a method and system for collecting information for a geographic database, and more particularly to a method and system for collecting pedestrian-related information for a geographic database.

Vehicle navigation systems are available that provide end users with various navigation-related functions and features. For example, some navigation systems are able to determine an optimum route to travel along a road network from an origin location to a destination location in a geographic region. Using input from the end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine the end user's location (such as a GPS system), the navigation system can examine various potential routes between the origin and destination locations to determine the optimum route. The navigation system may then provide the end user with information about the optimum route in the form of guidance that identifies the driving maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the origin to the destination location. The guidance may take the form of visual and/or audio instructions that are provided along the way as the end user is traveling the route. Some navigation systems are able to show detailed maps on displays outlining the route, the types of maneuvers to be taken at various locations along the route, locations of certain types of features, and so on.

In order to provide these and other navigation-related functions and features, navigation systems use geographic data. The geographic data may be in the form of one or more geographic databases that include data representing physical features in the geographic region. The geographic database includes information about the represented geographic features, such as the positions of the roads, speed limits along portions of roads, address ranges along the road portions, turn restrictions at intersections of roads, direction restrictions, such as one-way streets, and so on. Additionally, the geographic data may include points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, airports, gas stations, stadiums, police stations, and so on.

Although navigation systems provide many important features, there continues to be room for new features and improvements. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to determining a route for a pedestrian and to providing guidance to the pedestrian following the route. Pedestrian routes and guidance provides challenges not associated with vehicle guidance. Pedestrians are not limited to travel only on the road network; rather, pedestrians may walk through public spaces, such as plazas and parks, having no associated road network. Additionally, pedestrians do not have direction restrictions as a vehicle; pedestrians can walk down a one-way street in both directions. Moreover, pedestrians have a greater degree of freedom of motion and may become more frequently confused as to their orientation to destination.

Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have an improved way to guide users of a navigation system.

To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a method for operating a navigation system. The method obtains an ordered plurality of interconnected segments providing a route from an origin to a destination. The method forms a guidance message for each of the segments. The step of forming the guidance message comprises determining whether to reference a previous segment and adding a reference to a current segment.

Another aspect of the present invention is a navigation system comprising a route guidance application that provides a guidance message for each segment of a route between an origin and a destination. The guidance message comprises a reference to a previous segment and a reference to a current segment.

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described herein with reference to the following drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a navigation system, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a map of a geographic region.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a geographic database included in the navigation system depicted in FIG. 1, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of components of data records contained in the geographic database depicted in FIG. 3, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a representation of a portion of the geographic region depicted in FIG. 2, according to an exemplary embodiment.